Impressions
by MTCicero
Summary: As the title suggests, I'll be delving into a few key moments of OoT, trying to give insight on just a few glimpses of Link's thoughts and feelings as his story unfolds. It's an experiment and I'll see how it goes! The impressions won't necessarily be in chronological order...
1. Castle Town Market

Well, what is this, then... An experiment, mostly.

If I choose to continue this series, I'll try to capture a few interesting moments of OoT from Link's perspective, trying to empathize with him... As the title says, it's going to be a glimpse, an impression of the world, both outside and inside of our hero.

This is a side-project to my main series Resurgence. If you like my style, feel free to check it out.

* * *

 **Impressions**

 **Castle Town market**

Getting inside had been surprisingly easy, though his heart still hammered in his chest…

All those walls, high as some of the mightier trees back home… but he had simply slipped inside, hiding amidst the throng of people. A mischievous grin formed on his face…

True, he thought as his feet almost stumbled over the unfamiliar feel of cobbles underneath, the large man in armour hadn't seemed all that attentive… but something told him that a boy of nine with a sword on his back would draw attention. At least that's what he thought…

Dear damnable Deku, this was maddening! He knew so very little! Next to nothing! All his life he had spent in the forest, a life that made sense… and now!? Paths and buildings of pure stone, weird, colourful clothes on people that were _twice_ his height… Nothing made sense here! It would be disheartening… if it weren't that exciting!

He moved along the street, his feet automatically carrying him together with most of the crowd as he pondered, when suddenly…

He gasped as a sudden wall of sound hit him… his eyes darted to and fro, already watering because he refused to close them in fear of missing anything. After spotting a few stairs leading upwards he dashed towards them, hoping for a better view. His jaw dropped as he surveyed the spectacle ahead, his face pressed against the wooden banister.

So many people… hundreds… _thousands_! It wasn't often he had been able to use this word in the woods, but it seemed most appropriate now…

So many, hustling and bustling, shouting and calling, laughing and crying…

His people back home… no… not his people any more… The Kokiri had been a fewer than two dozen… and even then the forest had seemed crowded at times…

But now? A disbelieving laugh escaped his mouth… He hadn't thought there were this many people in the whole world, let alone one city! It frightened him… but intrigued him far more.

Stepping gingerly down from the stairs and back onto the street, he hesitantly made his way to the first stalls. His eyes turned wide at the marvels offered here, barely a tenth recognizable to him. Utensils, tools, toys even… those were familiar… But all the different kinds of food! The streamlet from the mountain had occasionally carried small fish… Here there were three dozen different kinds! And a few things that decidedly didn't look tasty at all! Things with entirely too many arms… or legs…

When the children of the forest found a deceased animal, they had meat for the day… Here, there seemed no end to poultry, game and uncountable other kinds…

Fruits! Some looked like they had just sprung from one of Mido's bad drawings! Vegetables in shapes he hadn't even thought possible!

A wide eyed, open mouthed boy strolled from stall to stall, dodging deftly between and under legs, trying to see, touch and smell everything at once… His little heart nearly burst from all the boundless excitement! So many new impressions, it made his head spin!

A kind lady that looked like a gnarled old tree and moved with similar speed smilingly offered him a kind of dried fruit he was unfamiliar with. He offered his thanks, as he had been taught, and the lady complimented his good behaviour. A sense of pride washed over him, though he couldn't quite say why… The fruit was tasty, both sour and sweet at once… he loved the smell it left on his fingers…

Warily, he tried to touch one of the many armed monstrosities offered by what he identified as a Zora, based on the Deku Tree's stories. No sooner than his finger had made contact with the disgusting, slippery skin, a slimy tentacle tried to reach for it twitchily. He pulled back his hand and stepped back so quickly he bumped head first into a red-faced Goron… but despite the back of his head being seriously jostled, the large rock-person didn't even seem to notice.

He passed a dark skinned woman with red hair who, with a scary sounding accent, offered him something called 'Elixirs' from a few jars with colourful contents… He decided to politely excuse himself.

Emboldened by his many discoveries, he sneakily ran his finger into a particularly intriguing looking mound of red powder and stuck it in his mouth… His surprise was almost as big as the lesson learned when his whole mouth started to burn like a forest fire and he had to sprint for the nearest fountain.

After he had washed his face for what seemed the hundredth time, trying to get the filthy taste of smoke out of his nose, he sat down on the colourful stone rim and just gazed at the crowd. The eager smile that hadn't flickered once since he had entered the market place turned a little calmer, more thoughtful, but no less sincere.

All those Hylians, all of them so very different. They were his people, apparently… It was obvious he was no Kokiri. He had always been different… He remembered them teaching him his first words, carrying him, feeding him… Then, suddenly, he had grown while they had stayed the same… He was already taller than some of them…It took no genius to figure it out…

He gazed at these people to whom he seemingly belonged. The enormous lady he had spotted twice before still searched for someone called Richard. A bent, old man with a beard like a weeping willow's branches spoke calmly about stories and legends to some children that had gathered around him. A strange couple, man and woman, were holding each other and twirling around endlessly, giggling like idiots, drawing head-shaking and good-natured scoffing from their surroundings.

He decided he liked them, those Hylians he supposedly belonged to. They were utterly mad and his instinct told him that there were a few bad apples among them… But all in all, they seemed friendly… and happy… and not at all boring. He already missed his friends from the forest… and being so far from the woods frightened him more than he cared to admit… But, he thought, this place didn't seem so bad.

A high, girlish laugh drew his gaze… and he nearly plopped backwards into the water, when he saw that a red haired girl had sneakily sat down beside him.

She giggled at his startled expression, but not in a taunting way… he felt his face warm up slightly.

"Hey, your clothes! They're… different…" she remarked, her head bobbing around as her blue eyes seemed to scrutinize every inch of him. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Erm… well, err…" he stammered as he felt his cheeks turning even hotter. Great Deku Tree, he should have thought of something beforehand! Now he was going to look like a complete airhead! "I'm from… err…"

Pull yourself together!

"Sorry, I'm from the east. Far from here…" It wasn't the best explanation, but it'd have to do.

"Ohh… You're a fairy boy from the forest!" she cooed excitedly.

Deku sticks! I've been found out!... But then again, she didn't really seem to care all that much… "My name is Malon! My dad owns Lon Lon Ranch! What's yours?"

He had no idea what a 'Lon Lon Ranch' was, but… she seemed alright, he decided… a child, about his age… He could feel Navi vibrate warningly under his cap, but like a few times before, he chose to ignore it. He couldn't just mistrust everyone he met! That seemed stupid!

"I'm Link! Nice to meet you!" he introduced himself, trying to seem braver than he felt.

Malon grinned happily and he eagerly joined. His first friend in this new, enormous world outside!


	2. The Graveyard

**Impressions**

 **The Graveyard**

The path became narrower and narrower… and the general hubbub from the village slowly mellowed to little more than a soft murmur.

So far, he liked Kakariko. It was… calmer than Hyrule City, not quite as crowded. But compared to his life in the forest, it still was a strenuously busy and, most of all, dreadfully noisy affair…

He shook his head, uncomprehending. How people lived with all that clamour, he simply couldn't understand. After the city and now the village he already yearned for a few hours of quiet in the woods back home… stalking through the underbrush with the triplets, or listening to Saria play…

Maybe that was why he was heading to the graveyard… a precious few moments of silence… But no. That would be a lie.

Link couldn't quite explain why he was drawn to it… It wasn't some sort of morbid fascination with death but… well, back at home, there had been no need for such a place. None of the Kokiri ever died… they were eternally children…

The concept of aging, of death, was a new one to his inexperienced mind. Sure, he had seen how animals didn't make it through the winter, how trees went dry inside and hollow… but to think that all of these laughing, shouting, blustering faces he had seen in those couple of days would one day go slack and pale and never more again… It frightened him. And whenever there was fear in his heart, he had to confront it, find a way to understand it, learn until its bite was little more than a feeble nibble.

…But how do you confront death?

The path opened again and behind a mouldy looking palisade, the first gravestones fell into view. By now, almost complete silence reigned… but it wasn't the type of silence you had amidst healthy trees, when wind made the leaves dance above and tiny critters rustled over the earth below. This was a very different kind… One that made his mouth uncomfortably dry…

He thought about how far he'd had to walk out here… It seemed the other Hylians, despite its inevitability, liked to keep death as far away as possible…

With hesitant steps Link passed through the palisade gate, feeling quite tiny facing the wide field of the dead… The whole space seemed to be cut partly from a hill, as all three walls that weren't leading back to the village were of natural rock. He couldn't even begin to guess how many tombstones there were… hundreds? Thousands? He felt reminded of the unending hustle and bustle of the market in Hyrule City with all its many, densely packed people, all its life… except that this was the exact opposite.

A few mourners wandered the pathways between the rows of graves… The paths looked… as if someone was keen and diligent at keeping them neat and tidy, but couldn't quite keep with the natural decay.

The mourners all were quiet… even in the one group of young-ish men, no word broke the silence. Soldiers, maybe? Visiting a deceased comrade?

A little off sat an old man with a walking stick, who had sat down so laboriously that Link had his doubts he would be able to rise again… He didn't seem perturbed, however and just gently petted the earth in front of a simple, granite stone.

A soft breeze tickled his nose, bringing with it the smell of flowers and freshly dug earth… Life and death… None of the people here were happy, but… in their sadness, there was peace. Even the young woman who quietly wept, leaning against a marble tombstone seemed to calm slowly, her obvious grief gradually losing the searing hotness with every shed tear.

It was a sombre image, all in all… but not a scary one.

Tentatively, he left the rickety fence he had leaned against to observe, ready now to walk among the graves, see more… learn more.

"Hat off in here, kid. Show the deceased some respect!" a gruff voice came from behind, making him yelp in surprise. The man who had spoken looked horrific! His skin yellowed and weatherbeaten, it seemed to hang too loosely from his skull and he had a massive overbite, with most of his teeth already missing. He gazed at him sternly, but his expression mellowed when he saw how he had startled the boy.

"Sorry… didn't mean to scare you." he grumbled, actually looking a tiny bit ashamed. "I'm Dampé the Gravekeeper! My face may be scary, but I'm not a bad guy…"

Link's heart immediately opened for the poor old man when he heard the sorrow and regret of decades in his voice. And the shame… He tried talking to him, to learn more about the 'Gravekeeper', a man who has chosen to watch over the dead. The blonde boy quickly understood how uneasy Dampé was about speaking to others, especially strangers, and soon curbed his curiosity so he wouldn't cause undue stress. Only when the old geezer brought the conversation to something he called the 'Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour' did he briefly open up, burbling his advertisement excitedly and cordially inviting Link and all his friends. When he talked with such enthusiasm, Link could see that, once, this man must have been of impressive build… and that the years may have bent his body, but not his spirit, odd as it may be.

With a slightly forced smile, he agreed to meet after sundown, feeling decidedly queasy about it…

Holding his green cap in his hand now, he meandered through the graveyard once Dampé had resumed his work. He read many of the uncountable inscriptions. Most of them were in loving memory of the old, a few of terribly, terribly young people.

A grieving widow, all in black, about 50 years of age if he was any judge, which he really wasn't, glanced askance at him, probably expecting him to be some sort of troublemaker. He awarded her one of his open smiles, to which, after a moment, she answered in kind, albeit sorrowfully.

Slowly but surely, his feet carried him to the very back of the cemetery, to a section that was clearly separated from the rest by well kept hedges and fences. Unable to resist his innate curiosity, he strolled around until he found a hole in the hedge, through which he quickly snuck after a quick glance around, making sure he wasn't observed.

There were tombs here as well, but much larger, more ornate, some were even in the shape of tiny cabins one could enter.

The largest, however, was at the very back, up on a little mound. Link immediately spotted the Triforce symbol, which, he had learned, was the insignia of the royal family. Three perfect triangles forming a larger one…

His minds instantly wandered to his encounter with the princess… Zelda… he actually mouthed her name as he thought it, liking the way it rolled off his tongue. A tiny grin made his lips curl up as he remembered her, how despite her magnificent dress she had eagerly sat down into the grass with him, how they had spoken so normally, how she had known and understood so much…

He shook his head free of the mellow, balmy memory, wondering what the heck was wrong with him. Stretching up, he gingerly touched the relief of the Triforce in the stone… he wasn't quite sure why…

A raindrop pattered onto his cheek, a second later another one on his hand. All around, he could hear the rich splashing of heavy drops, playing an interesting concert on stone, wood, earth and leaf.

He gazed at the tombstone again… These were Zelda's ancestors… the royal families before the current one. She had in passing mentioned that she only had her father the king as family… the only time her blue eyes had seemed sad…

With a sudden sense of guilt, Link wondered whether he had somehow disturbed her mother's peace by coming here… He still knew so little about, well, anything outside of the forest… The idea bothered him immensely and he tried to think of something he could do to appease anyone he might have disturbed.

The rain fell more densely now, a rising crescendo of sounds, the smell of wet earth tickling his nose.

Following a sudden impulse, he took Saria's highly-valued Ocarina from his bag… The song that scary woman Impa had taught him still rang crisply in his ears. 'An ancient melody passed down by the royal family', Impa had called it. 'There is mysterious power in these notes…'

A slight shiver ran through him from head to toe. He closed his eyes to focus on the melody. The rain was pouring now, drenching him through to his skin, but he didn't care. He had to prove he was a friend of Princess Zelda's, so the dead wouldn't be angry.

With his fingers already numb from the cold, he began to play…


End file.
